


On Psi Corps Arranged Marriages (Part 6)

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [115]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Backstory, Canon Compliant, Culture Shock, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, How canon misled you, Psi Corps, Telepath culture, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-02 18:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14551104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: The sixth part of a comprehensive essay on marriage in the Corps.Here, on courtship in the Corps.The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	On Psi Corps Arranged Marriages (Part 6)

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

Part 1 is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14408412). Summary of Part 1: Arranged marriages in the Corps are not what you think, are not as common as you think, always involve consenting adults, and no one is _forced_ to marry or breed.

Part 2 is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14539404). Summary of Part 2: Policies of genetic matching in the Corps were developed, in a "big picture" sense, to help protect Earth from future Shadow invasion. Most telepaths don't know about this, however, and so to them, these practices exist as part of a century of tradition, culture, and values.

Part 3 is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14544210). Summary of Part 3: Arranged marriages started in the MRA, under Crawford. They began as yet another policy by which normals attempted to make telepaths into a separate, subservient caste.

Part 4 is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14544645). Summary of Part 4: Vacit promoted and streamlined the arranged marriage/marriage approval system, and created the genealogy department, in order to promote telepath population growth and telepathic strength, and thus to protect Earth from the Shadows. This department can approve or deny marriages, but does not actually arrange them.

Part 5 is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14550252). Summary of Part 5: Arranged marriages are a part of tight-knit telepath culture. (The essay focuses on the background to Bester's arranged marriage.)

\-----

Now that we've talked a little bit about what arranged marriages are and are not, let's talk about courtship!

Sometimes courtship is really short, and times it's longer. Talia's courtship to Matt was very short. Bester's courtship to Alisha Ross was also very short. (The Black Fox Raid was after April 2222, and they married in April of the following year. I think they courted for a month or two. They agreed on the first date that they were on the same page regarding marriage, and as I remember it, they married after three more dates. Honestly, it was more small talk and wedding plans over dinner than it was "dating.")

But not all relationships in the Corps are like that. Telepaths also have passionate love affairs. Bester's relationship with his first girlfriend was entirely different.

 _Behind the Gloves_ gets into all that more later - at this point I want to talk about dating in school.

  * Students in the Corps are not allowed to have physical relationships with other students until they graduate - _at age eighteen, nineteen by telepath age reckoning_. Some older students do anyway, but if they're caught, they're punished.


  * And I'm not just talking about sex - touching each other without gloves is super immodest! Students caught engaging in immodest conduct, especially an actual sexual relationship, are denied privileges (such as the right to leave campus), forbidden to associate with each other, or punished in other ways.


  * The Corps is very big on modesty and boundaries - telepaths don't touch each other barehanded unless they're immediate family, or intimate. (Final Reckoning, p. 68: "He actually felt a blush coming on [when Louise grabbed his hand]. In the Corps, you always wore gloves, except when you were alone - or intimate.") There's that old joke in the Corps about why the boys try to peek into the girls' showers? (To see them wash their hands.)


  * Students in the Major Academy can ask the Corps if they are matches with their sweethearts, and they are permitted to marry when they graduate, but they are not permitted to have such relationships in school.


  * If boys and girls visit each other's rooms, it must be before curfew, the door must be open, and _gloves must be on_. Even when students are eighteen, and would be legal adults in the normal world, they must still follow these school rules.


  * Some teachers are more lenient with older students, as long as the students keep it discreet, but other teachers aren't. It depends on the teacher and the school.



At Bester's school in Geneva (the flagship school), they're on the lenient side (at least for the oldest students). Still, let's be clear - Bester has gotten involved with probably the most rule-breaking "bad girl" among the laters. (For one of many examples, see Dark Genesis, p. 118, when she arrives to class late: "Montoya was a capricious creature, always flirting, usually outrageous, rarely more than a single word from being thrown out of class.")

Still, he's literally _climbing in the window_.

\-----

Deadly Relations, p. 136:

          A week before finals, he met with her for lunch, and she asked him to meet her in her room that night.

          He went, a little after nine. Liaisons like this were ambiguous territory - essentially everyone knew that students went to each other's rooms, and ostensibly it was forbidden. As long as you were careful, as long as appearances were maintained, no one really cared. Like a good parent, the Corps knew that sometimes it was best to be a little blind in one eye.

          So sneaking in was just a ritual, though there were penalties for being caught. He might be forbidden to associate with Liz for a time; leave, always difficult to get, might be entirely restricted.

          Al liked the window. It was traditional, and gave him a chance to hone his climbing skills.

\-----

They're both future Psi Cops and this is less than a month from graduation (and on top of that, they are high genetic matches - Bester checked before he proposed marriage to her), so they're not going to get thrown out for it, but still... _he's sneaking in a window_. (I think someone would probably see that at a little after nine, but OK.)

My point is that whatever leniency some teachers might have for students who are eighteen or nineteen, students are on paper actually forbidden from having these relationships - they are  _not_ being matched up by the Corps with arranged marriages while in school. That wouldn't happen until students are older, either in their post-Academy training, or long out of training (in their twenties or thirties).


End file.
